The Office of Technology Commercialization at the University of Texas has awarded 2015’s Inventor of the Year award to one of the fathers of the selective laser sintering process, Joseph Beaman. Back in 1984 Beaman was was approached by young undergrad student Carl Deckard who had an idea for a machine that could use a laser to melt layers of powder together to create solid parts. Beaman saw value in the idea and agreed to work with Deckard, and even eventually took him on as a masters student later in the year. And two years later they brought SLS to Nova Automation who would turn SLS into one of the most revolutionary industrial 3D printing applications in history. You can read more about the development of SLS technology and Professor Beaman over on 3DPrint.com: http://3dprint.com/106689/sls-2015-i...r-of-the-year/